The Morning After: Raiders at Seahawks, Preseason Week 4

Today's "The Morning After" is going to be pretty short and sweet. The best thing about this game against the Seattle Seahawks is that it is over and the next time we get to see the Raiders on the field it will be in a game that actually matters. This was the 4th and final preseason game which is all about the bubble players which makes it a pretty ugly, boring game most times. This game was no different than that, but now that it's over we get to start looking towards Week 1 of the regular season.

The biggest take away from this game is that Seth Roberts is going to make the team. I thought he solidified that last week against the Cardinals, but this week he left no doubt about it after his 7 catch, 110 yards and a TD receiving effort. He is an exciting player who has earned his way onto the Raiders, hopefully he can repeat some of this magic once the games really do matter and he is playing against the opponents best players instead of their worst.

Another big takeaway from this game is that Matt McGloin should be the number 2 QB. He has actually played the best out of any QB on the Raiders so far this preseason and today was more of the same with his only big blemish on the day being the fumble while being sacked in the endzone. He consistently shows he has excellent chemistry with the players that he throws to on the second and third team offenses, proven once again by Seth Roberts and Brice Butler being the top two receivers for the team again with McGloin mostly at the helm.

Something else on offense that I enjoyed a lot was seeing Rod Streater get his feet under him some. He had struggled since coming back from injury and illness so it was uplifting to see him get a TD from McGloin last night. If he can get back to what he has shown in previous years then this Oakland wide receiver corp is going to be pretty damn good. Even without him they are pretty damn good actually.

Now to the bad though, and that starts with the running backs in this one. They were obliterated by Seattle's production and their complete lack of anything resembling a run game. The best run was a 10 yard run by Michael Dyer, unfortunately he gained a grand total of 7 yards on the other 11 runs he had. He was looking like he was going to have earned his way onto the team after the release of Trent Richardson last week but he did himself no favors in this one. He did not solidify his roster spot to the point where he has nothing to worry about, if another team cuts a productive back it might behoove the Raiders to take a strong look at them.

Then the run defense was almost as bad as the run offense in this game though. The Seahawks gained 224 yards rushing on just 31 runs, a staggering 7.2 yard per carry average. It wasn't like they just had a few nice runs to get that total either, they didn't even get one run stopped for a loss in this game. Compare that to Oakland's 27 yards on 25 carries with 8 stuffed for losses and it is easy to see where the Raiders will need to improve next week against the Bengals.

With this being the final preseason game where no starters other than D.J. Hayden even played in it isn't much of a surprise that it was disappointing. Personally, I would have played Derek Carr a series just to give him one last attempt at getting a TD this preseason after his not very pretty first three games but I can't blame Jack Del Rio for not wanting to risk injury. Some fans might be calling for Matt McGloin to play before the end of the season but the truth is if that happens then it will have been another terrible year for the Raiders.

Next up is the real thing though, it will be Week 1 of the regular season and the Raiders will be playing against the Cincinnati Bengals. At this point it is hard to guess what to expect from the team but the starting defense looked great last week against Arizona and the offense has a lot of new weapons. In the words of the notorious Bart Scott, Can't Wait!